Mtn. View band earns
'Lady of Lodi' trophy
The Mountain View High School Spartans Marching Band ended this season Nov. 6 on a triumphant note, winning the coveted Grape Bowl Classic Grand Sweepstakes trophy, known as the "Lady of Lodi."
This was the band's second grand sweepstakes award this season. The band won the Foothill Band Review in Pleasanton last month in addition to the Parade and Field Show Championship Award and top awards for marching, and parade. Drum majors Julie Baker, Daniel Clemens and Sima Gandhi tied with Vintage High School for Drum Major Sweepstakes Award.
At Lodi's morning parade contest, the 188-person band won first-place awards for showmanship, marching, percussion, and color guard and for its performance of Sousa's "Bullets and Bayonets."
This is not the first time the band has won the Lodi trophy. The Spartans won the award in 1996 and 1997.
"Certainly, (the students') performances exemplified the band's watchwords this year: integrity, passion, zenith," said music director Robin Kramer about the Spartans' field show.
The band performed "Carmina Burana," adapted especially for them by band director Scott Tombleson.
Kramer said the music was exhilarating but difficult, with complicated rhythms and multiple time changes.
The show included costumes, dancers, flags and a four-section medieval castle created by students and parents.
Foothill College
nears accreditation
Springer students put poetry in motion
Fifth graders from Springer School in Mountain View put their poetry in motion this month, collaborating with professional poets and composers to create original songs for Foothill College's Peninsula Women's Chorus to perform at a public concert this spring.
Springer is among the five Peninsula schools to participate in the Poetry and Music Project sponsored by the Women's Chorus and California Poets in the Schools.
Through the program, students have met in the classroom over the past four weeks with professional poets to learn about poetry and to write their own poems for possible inclusion in the chorus' April concert. Students sent their poems to three composers this month who will put music to selected pieces from the collection, which includes about 400 poems.
Barbara Pforzheimer, a fifth grade teacher at Springer and a member of the 60-member chorus, said the idea of the program is to include the community in their music. Pforzheimer will be among those performing the children's songs at the concert.
Pforzheimer said the program got most of her students excited about poetry. They wrote odes about everything from french fries to pencils.
"Most of the students loved it," Pfozheimer said about the program. "There was just a different respect (for the poets). They looked at the poets as celebrities because they were published."
The Women's Chorus regularly performs new literature for women's voices. It was the 1999 recipient of the Adventurous Programming Award.
For more information, go to www.pwchorus.org.
Foothill College in Los Altos Hills earned high marks last month in a preliminary report from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which evaluated the junior college as part of its accreditation process.
Schools that satisfactorily follow the standards of excellence established by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges are eligible for accreditation after a period of rigorous self-study and outside evaluation. A standard accreditation is good for six years.
Foothill College earned its first accreditation in 1959. Its accreditation was last renewed in 1994.
In its report, the team commended the college's Center for Innovation and its focus on students and programs such as the "Pass the Torch Program" - a mentor program for struggling students.
The accreditation team recommended that the college increase its efficiency in class scheduling; better utilize its sites, particularly in the afternoon, evening and weekends; better articulate its programs with De Anza College; and examine workload inequalities among staff members.
The association will release its final report to the public in January.
In Brief: Students at the International School of the Peninsula joined together to host a donut sale last month to help in the fight against Leukemia. The October fund-raiser raised $108, which the 14-member student council presented to the Leukemia Society of America on Nov. 8.
Los Altos High School's Junior Classical League (JCL) recently held a Latin Recitatio (read-a-thon) fund-raiserin honor of Vergil's birthday at Heinzelman's Bookstore in downtown Los Altos.
The money earned will benefit LAHS' certamen teams, which compete in this JCL team competition.Certamen is similar to a quiz bowl game with questions about topics including Latin grammar and vocabulary as well as mythology and history.
For more information about Los Altos High School's Junior Classical League, contact John Klopacz at 960-8811.
Send noteworthies to Linda Taaffe, 138 Main St. Los Altos, 94022.